Alexander Forbes

Alexander Forbes was a Scottish-born merchant whose life and work connected Britain with Mexico and the Pacific coast of North America. His experience in Mexico gave him a perspective unusual among British writers of his day: he wrote about California not merely as a distant place on a map, but as a region he had encountered through travel, commerce, and observation. His writing belongs to the tradition of travel and geographical accounts that introduced unfamiliar parts of the world to English-speaking readers, combining practical description with an interest in local life and resources.

Forbes is best known for California: A History of Upper and Lower California, a wide-ranging account of the region. It brings together descriptions of its geography, people, missions, natural resources, and economic prospects, reflecting the interests of a merchant as well as a traveler. Forbes writes with the explanatory purpose of a guide for readers seeking reliable information, rather than the pace of a novelist. The book is also valuable as an early English-language portrait of California, composed before the region became familiar to a broad audience. If you are curious about the places and encounters that shaped early accounts of the Pacific coast, Forbes offers a distinctive point of entry.